“We battled in secret, undeclared, and after a while I no longer fought back because I never won. The only defense was flight, invisibility.”

“Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools.”

William Faulkner book The Sound and the Fury

“A battle can be won before it's ever fought by choosing the right ground.”

Rick Riordan book The Son of Neptune

“Your battles inspired me - not the obvious material battles but those that were fought and won behind your forehead.”

James Joyce (1882–1941) Irish novelist and poet

“The world petroleum story is one of the most inhuman known to man: in it, elementary moral and social principles are jeered at. If powerful oil trusts no longer despoil and humiliate our country it is not because these predators have become human, but because we have won a hard-fought battle which has been going on since the beginning of the century.”

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1919–1980) Shah of Iran

“Even the children of Carmona were divided into two camps, and below the ramparts, among the brushwood and rocks, we battled with stones shouting "Long live the duke!" and others, "Down with the tyrant!" We fought viciously, but I was never satisfied with this game — the fallen enemy rose again, the dead came back to life. The day after a battle, victors and vanquished both found themselves unharmed.”

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist

“Only a battle lost is sadder than a battle won.”

Robert Jordan The Fires of Heaven

“Pessimism never won any battle.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961)

“Each [pelican] has already survived many perils in its young life. As a chick, it fought battles with its brothers and sisters and won.”

David Attenborough (1926) British broadcaster and naturalist

“It didn’t matter what war was fought, coming back home was another battle altogether.”

Michael Connelly book The Crossing